The Portland Trail Blazers will look to stop a five-game losing skid when they host the Washington Wizards (8-30) on Monday night. The Wizards, who own the NBA's worst record, have won three of five since point guard and former No. 1 overall draft pick John Wall returned from a knee injury that caused him to miss the team's first 33 games.

In his first five games of the season, Wall has yet to start but is averaging 15.6 points and 7.6 assists in a little over 24 minutes a game. Without Wall in the lineup, the Wizards leaned on Jordan Crawford and rookie Bradley Beal to shoulder the majority of the scoring load for the first half of the season. Crawford averaged 15 points and a career-high 4.5 assists per game without Wall in the backcourt, but recently missed four games with an ankle injury. Beal is third among rookies in scoring, averaging 13.9 points per game and has looked the part of the third overall pick in the 2012 draft.

Washington started the season 0-12 before earning its first win of the season over the Trail Blazers, 84-82, back on November 29. In that game, Crawford led the way with 19 points off the bench and Kevin Seraphin chipped in a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. The Wizards come to Portland Monday playing their fourth game in a five-game road trip. Washington is 1-2 on the trip, with a win over the Nuggets wedged between losses to the Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Clippers.

Here's a quick look at what they're saying about the Trail Blazers' Monday night opponent, the Washington Wizards:

Wall hasn’t been perfect in his first five games of the season, but the small sample size has been enough to show that an offseason spent reshaping his game and a three-month, injury-forced studying session from the sideline has resulted in an improved player leading and instilling confidence in the Wizards.
“Just the way he plays, he’s so aggressive. We have to be behind him,” rookie Bradley Beal said. “He’s always fired up. Sometimes, you have to tell him to relax a little bit.”

It has been nearly five years since the Wizards finished any road trip of three games or more with a winning record. The last time was February 2008, when Washington beat New Orleans and Chicago on either side of a loss to Houston.
It has been even longer since the Wizards had more wins than losses during a five-game road stint. In March 2005, Washington lost to Denver, beat Utah and lost to the Clippers before topping Seattle and Portland in succession to go 3-2. Gilbert Arenas and Larry Hughes combined for 53 points to close out the trip with a 114-106 win over the Trail Blazers.

Over the last two games - those with Jordan Crawford and [Trevor] Booker back in the lineup - Wittman has essentially gone with a 10-man rotation. Beal, [AJ] Price, Wall and Crawford in the backcourt with Nene, [Emeka] Okafor, [Martell] Webster, [Trevor] Ariza, [Trevor] Booker and Kevin Seraphin up front. Each of those players received at least 16 minutes against the Clippers and the Denver Nuggets while only Beal played over 30 minutes in each game. Also realize conditioning issues exist for some of the just returning players.

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Right now, so be it. After spending weeks in the role of league-wide punch line, the Wizards are finally punching back. Considering the playoffs remain a distant dream, there will be a time and place for a larger discussion about the long-term plan, how [Jan] Vesely and [Chris] Singleton fit in it (or don't) and whether space should/could be created by trading certain veterans away at the trading deadline.

If the Wizards finish with around 30 wins, how is management going to react? The fear here is that they'll once again excuse early-season losing and think they're much closer to contention than they actually are. "Oh, we were .500 when healthy! We just got unlucky!" Another losing season that began with playoff aspirations will be excused.

If that's the case, that'll be too bad. There is something to be said for what the Wizards went through this year, having lost both of their top players to injury for significant periods of time. Barring some very bad luck, the Wizards won't ever be that unhealthy again. But no NBA team can count on a complete bill of health through 82 games, and the fact that the Wizards' season collapsed when the injury bug hit is an indictment on the dearth of the right kind of depth on the roster. If the Wizards' upper management, whoever that ends up being, takes the approach that luck alone will turn this team around, they will have made a mistake.